Hey everyone. You may have noticed posts were a bit sparser during the month of September as I was out on paternity leave spending time with my new little boy. However, I’m back and we’re ready to get the content flowing again.

We’ve had the privilege this summer of having quite a few interns in Windows Embedded and you’ve heard from five of them including Jordan Goldberg, the author of this post. In Jordan’s first post, he told us about his summer and his work on a Windows Debugger extension for Unified Write Filter (UWF). This time, he gets technical and explains the work needed to ensure your application functions correctly on a system with UWF enabled. To see any of the previous posts from our interns, click one of the links below.

Greetings from Redmond! Today I want to take some time to talk about a new feature in Windows Embedded Standard 8, Unified Write Filters (UWF), and the best way for adding support for applications. UWF takes the best of Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) and File-Based Write Filter (FBWF) and bundles in a few more features to create a complete Write Filter solution. As a quick overview, a Write Filter is a virtual overlay that can be applied to a volume and transparently capture all disk I/O. The overlay is then wiped each time a machine is rebooted. This can be useful in a scenario such as a public kiosk where all user data needs to be wiped after use. For more information on Unified Write Filters, check out this post.

The issue with supporting applications with Write Filters is that by default, all I/O is redirected to an overlay and wiped after reboot. This can be problematic for applications storing information in the registry and file system since the data will be lost regularly. In UWF, the way to prevent this is to set exclusions on the registry and file locations of where this information is being stored. This will cause the data to bypasses the overlay and get written directly to disk. However, applying these exclusions is not always user friendly since it can only be done through WMI, the Embedded Lockdown Manager (ELM) or the command line utility uwfmgr.exe.

At the recent Visual Studio launch event, it was confirmed that Visual Studio 2012 will once again include support for Windows Embedded Compact. Included in that support we’re targeting much of the newest compiler and tools functionality, most notable of which includes new compiler features such as C++11 language standards, faster more efficient code generated, an updated CRT, auto-parallelization and auto-vectorization (Wow, that’s a mouthful.), range based loops, RValue references, and more. Also included will be an updated version of .net CF which has greatly improved performance, particularly around memory allocation and garbage collection - using the “generational” garbage collector. This not only provides more performance, but more predictability in the execution of applications.

More information about the new Visual Studio, including support for Compact, can be found at the Visual Studio Launch site. (Yes, I’m in the video and no, I’m not going to be able to make a living in front of the camera. But it’s the message that’s important here.)

Be sure to check back in the future as we release more information on the upcoming Windows Embedded Compact release.

When we talk about Intelligent Systems, we speak about connecting sensors and smart devices through intuitive applications to cloud services. Whether this fabric is lowering the cost of manufacturing for your next car, helping your family doctor prescribe you the right medicine, or making your next shopping experience better, Microsoft technology is in the DNA of the effort. Sometimes, it even effects your day out at the ballpark.

Most of us think of pro sports stadium experiences from our childhood. Mine was in Edmonton watching the Oilers of the 80’s in mullets and tube skates. The arena was loud. We kept up with the game using a hard copy program in our laps and the few light bulb boards around the rink that showed the score, some out of town info every now and then but not much more. Not much technology in place. Anywhere.

Today’s kids have it a little different. With the kids back in school, those warm summer nights slowly disappearing into cooler evenings and the trees changing color, our thoughts turn to the autumn. Football coverage takes over the TV networks, and the baseball season heads for the playoffs.

Hey everyone, if you have been following industry platform news over the past few weeks, you might have seen the news about Windows Server 2012 being released. This is a significant release for us here at Microsoft, and as many of you who read this blog know, there is also a version of Windows Server 2012 for embedded systems. My name is Jeff Wettlaufer, and I am excited to bring my blogging efforts over from the System Center group, joining the Windows Embedded Marketing team. I have recently returned to Microsoft from a year at RES Software, and in my new role with WEM as a Technical Program Manager I am primarily responsible for the technical product management of Windows Embedded Compact, but also Windows Server for Embedded Systems, SQL embedded, Windows Embedded Device Management and of course Windows Embedded demonstrations. You can expect to hear from me on these areas and more in the coming months as I get unpacked and settled into this amazing team.

We thought it might be worth a post to let you know a little more about what the server platform means to the Windows Embedded business, and provide you some highlights of the (huge) list of new capabilities. So, here goes……..

Many of us think of servers locked up in datacenters in the corporate world, or more recently in large deployments - servicing cloud offerings like Outlook.com, XBOX Live, Office 365, Dynamics and even Windows Azure. While all of these are true, and great examples of Windows Server 2012 deployments, from an embedded perspective, we have other applications. I want to provide you an overview of Windows Server 2012 for embedded systems using 3 simple buckets:

KB2654644 - This is a USB driver update rollup which includes the latest Embedded USB boot drivers. Note that KB2533552 is a pre-requisite for this KB.

KB2721923 - This update fixes an issue with the Registry Filter, where it does not take the customer registry setting correctly.

KB2728894 - This update fixes an issue with the Dialog Filter, where occasionally customer applications stop responding due to a conflict in the Dialog Filter.

The list below applies to Windows Embedded POSReady 7:

KB2755802 - This update fixes an issue with POS for .NET v1.12, where POS for .NET v1.12 crashes when using .NET 4.0. Volume Licensed customers can download this KB from the Download Center.

KB2654644 - This is a USB driver update rollup which includes the latest Embedded USB boot drivers. Note that KB2533552 is a pre-requisite for this KB. Volume Licensed customers can download this KB from the Download Center.

KB2721923 - This update fixes an issue with the Registry Filter, where it does not take the customer registry setting correctly. Volume Licensed customers can download this KB from the Download Center.

KB2728894 - This update fixes an issue with the Dialog Filter, where occasionally customer applications stop responding due to a conflict in the Dialog Filter. Volume Licensed customers can download this KB from the Download Center.